After months of hinting and winking, the right-wing Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, appears set to make clear this Saturday his intention to seek the Republican presidential nomination next year and create instant tumult in the race, not least because of its devil-may-care timing.

Despite a dramatic legal effort by one of his victims to prevent the execution, a white supremacist was put to death early yesterday for killing an Asian shopkeeper. Mark Stroman, 41, had gone on a shooting spree that he claimed was in retaliation for the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

Rick Perry, the arch-conservative Governor of Texas, has given the clearest indication yet that he will run for President in 2012, a move that would reshape the fluid and uncertain race for the Republican nomination.

A Texas mother is waiting to find out if her hefty baby boy will make the record books as one of the biggest newborns in the state's history. JaMichael Brown was born on Friday in an east Texas hospital weighing a whopping 16lbs 1oz.

For most bands, the microphone is the focal point of a show, the vessel through which lyrics can be sung and thanks given. For the Texan band Explosions in the Sky, however, it is little more than a distraction. Used for a brief hello and goodbye, the mic stands on one side while the four-piece tear through a set filled with emotions and ideas for which words seem insufficient.